nadera78

I never go to watch live games anymore, since the Broncos gave up trying. I watch fewer games on TV than ever. I visit this forum less than ever. I talk about RL less than ever. I think about it less than ever. And none of it was a conscious decision, it just crept up on me. Life's too short to bother with a sport that, at best, refuses to help itself and, at worst, seems to actively seek out damage.

This is so far off the mark it's almost unbelievable.

We'll be having the same conversation after the England v Tonga series doesn't sell out 3 games in the "heartlands".

Wait, are the Broncos still going? Thought they'd packed up a few years ago.

But gambling sponsorship will still be allowed on shirt sleeves and pitch-side LED boards. Usual nonsense from sports NGBs.

They definitely did around the turn of the century. Great Britain, Wigan, Leeds and maybe a few others

There was a lot of sympathy towards it for a while, and I think the Catalan football team had re-started around the same time as well. Once the financial support was put at risk there was no way the RLEF could afford to let it continue.

I think so, yeah. Although I also think that at the time the majority of Spanish clubs were based in Catalonia which muddied the waters even further. It would be easier to list the countries where there hasn't been a split at some point.

IIRC there was a bit of a situation with the Catalan RL where the RLEF, as was, decided not to recognise them as an international federation because it put at risk some funding they had received from the EU. When they made that decision, the clubs in Catalonia packed up rather than become part of a Spanish RL.

The community clubs and schools are the roots, not the Championship and League 1 clubs.

When I read your post I realised I no longer use 'our' 'we' or 'us' to describe the Broncos. Hmm. Feel a little sad about that.

I love the way people still try to assess the Broncos' decision-making as if it were a real club.

I know the game in Lebanon has taken a hit over the past 5 years (like the country as a whole) but there is still some RL played there, plus a sizeable number of people who were still engaged relatively recently, as well as a general awareness of the game. The recent RLWC would have helped with that too. It wouldn't take a huge amount of money to regenerate the school, college and club competitions that were previously in place. Adding the Lebanese to that trio would help establish a really interesting web of local and regional development, where clubs and rep teams (at a variety of levels) could bounce off one another. It presents a lot of very interesting developmental possibilities. The question isn't really about money, that can be found if we really want it to be, it's more about having someone in authority who can recognise the strategic benefits of focussing on one area and pushing through with it. The fact we've allowed Serbia to stagnate and Lebanon to wither is, frankly, criminal.

There's still time...

I'd just like to see the Australian women playing in Green and Gold, not some knock off rah-rah jersey.

Hahahaha!

The next time someone states on here with absolute certainty that we should stop wasting time on London, Newcastle and France, and instead focus on the "14million people in the heartlands" I'm going to use this tournament to point out how few of those 14m actually watch RL and just what an enormous job it would be to persuade them to. A massive tournament, on their doorstep, with lots of free publicity from the BBC, and they haven't gone to watch the games. Prices are far from the only issue here.

I think most of the players on GB's 1936 Olympic Gold medal winning team were born in Britain. Maybe 2 or 3 born in Canada. But almost all of them had grown up and learnt to play hockey over there. Caused a bit of a stink with the Canadians when we beat them.

Just thinking out loud here but, if the RLWC tends to make in the region of £4m in profit, which is used to fund the IRL for a 4-year cycle, it's not exactly a huge sum of money to ask a government to guarantee. In the scheme of things. If they were looking at it in terms of their regional diplomatic efforts. That's only way I could see it ever happening tbh.

I suppose, with Australia attempting to solidify it's position within the Pacific sphere, there's an opportunity for the IRL to suggest the Aussie government might like to put some funding into a regionally-held RLWC as part of that. Perhaps covering flights, hotels, etc and rebuilding some sports facilities in those countries. Ticket revenue would still be negligible, of course, but there's TV revenue as well. Might work. Bit of a long shot though.

BS from the video ref. There is a delay to the ball coming out but it only does so because the England player rips at it.

Pretty sure the Bears also said they wanted to own the NRL licence, which would mean they could do to Perth what Manly did to them. That alone would be an outright now from me, never mind the number of games they want at NS Oval, control over kit, etc, etc.

I don't want to steal another poster's line, but it looks like we have another referee who doesn't know what a knock on is.

Yes, including the Bears and their ludicrous demands would be a terrible mistake - so it's likely V'landys is pushing for that to happen.

I think the club comp in BC has continued, regardless of the situation in Toronto. No idea what standard of team they could put together though.